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The Missoula Independent has an article in their latest issue about Project Vote Smart's malfunctions in communication with organizations big and small, and how they may leave Montana. In the article is a brief interview with Michael Gorman about the ALA debacle, where Project Vote Smart refused to continute providing free materials to libraries without an endorsement. Turns out that ALA was not the first nor the last organization yanked around by Project Vote Smart, as I could tell you based on my experiences there. Not that I'm bitter, no...

schoenbc writes "From the article "...representatives for 10,000 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency scientists are asking Congress to stop the Bush administration from closing the agency's network of technical research libraries. The EPA scientists, representing more than half of the total agency workforce, contend thousands of scientific studies are being put out of reach, hindering emergency preparedness, anti-pollution enforcement and long-term research, according to the letter released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)." http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=706"

mdoneil writes "A reporter for the New York Times lied to get into a detention center to see Anthony Pellicano. The contract reporter, Allison Hope Weiner is a indeed a member of the California bar but she is not Pelicano's attorney.
According to the LA Times story the reporter violated Federal Law, California State Law, and the NYT Code of Ethics (such as it is).
Of course the reporter denies everything, but the detention center director and even the prisoner don't believe a word of it.
Is this another get the story at any cost end run around the truth? Time will tell if she lied she deserves prison time and to be disbared."

Books as battle ground: Inspired by the ongoing U.S. occupation of Iraq, the Bush administration's war on terror and domestic policies, the performance of the news media and the vicious partisan nature of today's politics, mainstream publishers are releasing an unusual amount of books on current affairs.

When the political stakes are high, as they are this year, readers are "using the bookstore like a voting booth," Ross said. "When a customer chooses to buy a political title, every ring on the cash register is like a vote. It's one way for people to register their dismay at what's going on."

Walter Skold writes "Madeleine Albright spoke of Communist and Nazi repression in her native Czechoslovakia and then, quoting Jose Marti, defended the right of Cubans to start and maintain libraries independent of State control. She reminded the ALA, which is considering the issue of Cuba in Council, that "Cuba is a country where basic freedoms are denied." The Times-Picayune covered the story in NOLA Here"

SEO writes "Brin acknowledged large companies such as Google would be able to cut deals with the network owners to get their content through. But he added that Google searches are only valuable if consumers can then quickly access the sites listed in the results. "The thesis is that some content providers will pay for premium service. Why are they paying? Just because they feel charitable toward the telcos and ISPs?""

Anonymous Patron writes ""Paul Kelsey Williams, a consultant hired last year to look through archival materials, including maps and photographs, stored in such locations as the John Philip Sousa Bridge, the 3rd Street Tunnel, and a couple of trailers languishing in D.C. Village, found that the conditions at those places 'do not meet even the most basic requirements for proper storage and preservation of its valuable and rare contents,' according to a confidential March 23, 2005, report obtained by the Washington City Paper."